I would have liked to put more into this section, but there isn’t much that needed mentioning. The game is not bad, but it has several minor flaws that really deter from the experience.

Controls are set up, so that is a plus. I still checked to see if they were settings I could use, (they weren’t) but it was easy to fix. and the controller seems to work flawlessly with the menu selections! With the last three titles in this pack having stupid problems, I was almost certain it was going to be an issue with them all.

The graphics are decent. Crashes aren’t the greatest, but the environment is pretty nice looking. The frame rate keeps up fairly well too, so the lighting and particle effects come out looking rather nice.

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The Bad Stuff

I really don’t want to come off like I am tearing this game apart, or needlessly bitching about things. But there are several things about a game that I shouldn’t have to get frustrated about.

When making menu selections, the non selected items appear shaded, and the selected is highlighted in black, but the definition is not enough. Until I got used to the menu display, I had to read at the bottom to make sure I was selecting what I thought. Not the biggest thing in the world, but it could pulse or glow or SOMETHING to tell me, without a doubt, which one I am selecting.

The video cut scenes were shot in a language other than English, so the actors mouths move out of sync like an old ninja movie. I found it comical, but then again, I watch a lot of import films. I put it under Bad Things because some people(like my daughter), could find it disturbing. 😛

The first car sucks! I know this is usually the case, but it is going to take some dedication to earn enough cash to afford a better ride. After you play the game a while, you can earn enough money to upgrade your car, and this makes the game significantly easier to play. Personally, I thought the game took too long to get to that point.

The game is kind of confusing/disorienting at first. The lock-on reticule is constantly shifting around, other racers exploding or shooting, obstacles to avoid and power ups to gather, quite a bit coming at you at all times! It doesn’t help that the courses are often dark and gloomy. Once you get used to it all, this issue goes away for the most part.

I often find myself having to focus more on shooting and less on racing. This leaves me struggling to keep up to win races. In games like Mario Kart, you are limited on weapons and power-ups so it’s important to be a good racer and use your upgrades wisely. In Death Track, you have an enormous supply of ammo because you are ALWAYS shooting. So at what point do I get to RACE!?!

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The Other Stuff

Oddly this title was produced by Aspyr. Maybe you know this company for co-creating Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. I would have expected more from them. This game shows what they wanted to do, but never seems to grab a firm hold. I can’t really say that it is a bad game, but it’s flaws make it repetitive and boring. With better gameplay meshing, this title could have been awesome.

Either it is a racer, or it is a car shooter. In the end it comes up as more of a “Survivor Racer” than anything else. In my opinion, the game tries to do too many things at once, and this makes enjoying the end product significantly harder. The individual parts should blend into a seamless experience, and instead they don’t really blend at all.

I am not completely turned off to it though, and if a sequel were made that repaired some of it’s major flaws, I would purchase it. As is, it belongs in the budget bin.